During early March 1900, Mr James Leishman, a brass picker residing at Lyon’s Land, Springfield sued the Caledonian Railway Company for £1,000 damages for the death of his son, Gavin Leishman. Gavin had died at the age of only 14 on 7th February 1899, whilst in the employment of Dixons (Limited) at their number […]
On Tuesday morning 17th December 1929 an alarming collision occurred on the Hamilton Road, near the High School, when a bus proceeding towards Hamilton came into collision with butcher’s horse-drawn cart coming in the opposite direction. The butcher’s horse was killed outright in the collision, and the driver was thrown from his seat and severely […]
Miss Janet Anderson died on Tuesday 27th May 1879. The dairymaid from Calderglen was killed under shocking circumstances on the railway near Blantyre. She had been at Hamilton and travelled by train to Low Blantyre Station, alighting there. She decided then to take a short cut along the line, which directly passed by Calderglen. She was […]
Shared here by Gordon Cook is a picture taken in 1902 of miners descending in a cage. It is basically a cattle grid with chains, there is nothing to hold on to, and they were not slow in rising or descending either! Gordon told me, “Just a week after the overwinding accident of 1878 […]
A third pit disaster in the space of 2 years fell upon Dixons Collieries this time on the 2nd of July 1879, with the loss of 28 lives. The 1879 disaster occurred in the ell coal, the shallowest of the three seams. The coal was worked from number 1 pit, which was the downcast. […]
In May 1930, while workmen were engaged cutting a new roadway through Priory Pit, Blantyre, a charge of gelignite, which had been left buried by mistake the previous night, exploded, causing the death of one man and serious injury to another. The man killed was William Stewart (57), who resided 51 Small Crescent, High […]
I’ve lost count of the amount of people who drowned in the Clyde at Blantyre, whether accidentally (or indeed deliberately through own actions). Not a nice story to dwell on , but this newspaper report from 27th July 1931, told of another body being discovered in the water. “WOMAN’S BODY IN RIVER. The body of […]